AndRÉ Brink and the Afrikaner Heritage
For almost two centuries afterwards it designated mainly persons of mixed blood just as the language that became known as Afrikaans was largely shaped by slaves and others who could not speak proper Dutch.3 Like Brink himself, the characters and narrators of his novels repeatedly insist on their own...
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| Published in: | Commonwealth (Rodez, France) France), 2004-10, Vol.27 (1), p.27-37 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | For almost two centuries afterwards it designated mainly persons of mixed blood just as the language that became known as Afrikaans was largely shaped by slaves and others who could not speak proper Dutch.3 Like Brink himself, the characters and narrators of his novels repeatedly insist on their own hybridity and Africanity. [...]Thomas Landman, the hero of An Act of Terror, remarks several times that members of his family have 'a certain sallowness of complexion', and that he is no exception.4 To account for this, the 'Chronicle of the Landman Family', which constitutes the second part of the novel, shows there were black people among Thomas's ancestors. [...]he adds, 'he returned with a wife he'd found on the way: curiously enough, Dad never spoke about her'.' According to Ben Obumselu, all these dissident characters, whose voices challenge the narrator's, rely on the same model, a Xhosa ideal of altruism and generosity, as opposed to Mynhardt's selfishness and greed.3 What remained implicit in Rumours of Rain becomes explicit in An Act of Terror, in which Brink's heroes, black and white, personify and repeatedly invoke ubuntu, defined by Thomas as 'sharing, generosity, hospitality, humanity. Yet the dissident is doomed to failure, as Michael Wade suggests: [...]the dissident (who is by definition in conscious possession of the myth he dissents from) is forced to answer, to articulate his repudiation of so pervasive a component. |
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| ISSN: | 0395-6989 |